The Perfect Son
by Laura Schiller
Summary: The Aoyamas have never been very close to their adopted son. But when Masaya goes missing as Deep Blue, will they finally realize what he means to them?


The Perfect Son

By Laura Schiller

Based on: Tokyo Mew Mew

Copyright: Reiko Yoshida, Mia Ikumi

Aoyama Hiromu came home from the office every evening at nine-thirty p.m., took off his shoes, hung up his coat, and looked in on his foster-son's room. As regularly as clockwork, the young boy would look up from his books, nod, and say "Welcome home, Father." But on this particular evening, Hiromu did not see a smiling face lit by a desk lamp. Instead he saw his wife slumped over the desk, her head in her hands, not even turning around at the sound of his footsteps.

The tidy little room with its blue walls, blue striped bedspread, potted houseplants and shelf full of biology and geology textbooks, was completely dark except when car headlights broke through the window blinds. Hiromu switched on the light. Kaede whirled around in the spinning chair, saw her husband, and held out her hands helplessly.

"It's Masaya-kun," she said, "He's … missing."

"Missing … ?"

Hiromu's first instinct was to make order. Of course this would be fixed, somehow.

"Have you called his friends? Are you sure he's not with them?"

"Yes. I called his kendo coach, his teammates, the faculty advisor of the environmental club, and Momomiya-san, and none of them has seen him. Besides, you know how – how responsible he is. If he were going away to meet someone, he would have told us. He said he was just going for a walk."

"Did you call the - "

She waved her hand. "Yes, yes, the police too. They didn't take me seriously. A teenage boy staying out late? Nothing new to them. They even told me to check the room for drugs. Not a hint."

"Of course not!" The very idea of their son taking drugs was horrifying.

Hiromu took both of his wife's hands in his, pulled her up out of the chair, and looked into her eyes with what he hoped was a reassuring expression. Kaede's eyes were bloodshot and rimmed with tears. When was the last time he had seen her crying?

"We have to stay calm," he muttered. "We have to stay calm … "

He glanced restlessly around the room, as if it could provide him with a clue. The space was neat and impersonal as ever; even the bed was made with military precision. He had taught Masaya that when the boy was six. He'd gotten it right after only one demonstration and made his bed every morning ever since then. The houseplants were green and thriving, the books dusted, the kendo trophies polished and lined up in a row.

"I knew it," he burst out, forgetting his own orders to stay calm. "I knew it all along. There's something not _right_ about the boy. What kind of normal thirteen-year-old would have a room like this? It's a hotel room! I ask you!"

"Excuse me?" Kaede snapped. "_You_ were the one always admonishing him to be tidy."

"Yes, but … but that's my job, isn't it? And _his_ job would have been to sulk and complain, just like I did with my father. Except he never did. We should have sent him to therapy when he was little."

Kaede snorted. "And what were we supposed to tell them? That our son is too perfect, always doing what he's told? Oh my God, how tragic for his parents!"

"There is no need for sarcasm, Kaede. We're both in the same boat here."

She closed her eyes and sat down on the bed, letting wrinled spread along the blankets. "I know. I'm sorry."

They sat together for a few moments, lost in their own memories. Hiromu thought of the day Kaede's first and only pregnancy miscarried, leaving her sterile. How she had looked like a little broken doll in that hospital gown, her face streaked with sweat and tears, her eyes empty. How they had always treated Masaya – the prospective heir to the family name and business, the substitute son – with such distant care, ordering him to dress warmly and eat his vegetables, but never snuggling with him or playing with him as most parents did. Their safety mechanism.

"Do you remember when we brought him home?" Kaede began softly. "He was so fascinated by everything, from the squirrels in the garden to the tree in the front yard. He'd never lived in the suburbs before. He used to sit watching the ants on the pavement for ages, sitting perfectly still. So far away."

She leaned against Hiromu's shoulder with confiding affection, in a way she hadn't done since they were university students and he used to bring her home from clubs.

"We never really knew him, did we?" she murmured. "Living under our roof for nine years and we never knew … "

Hiromu's eye fell on the nightstand, with the alarm clock and its digital display. 21:43. Next to it was a framed photograph, of poor quality, obviously taken in a public photo booth. It showed Masaya in his black and white letter jacket, with a redheaded girl in a yellow sweater next to him. Her hair and her smile were the brightest things in the room.

"Is that his … Momomiya-san?" he asked, pointing to the picture.

"Yes." Kaede smiled crookedly. "I gave the poor girl quite a fright when I told her … by the sound of her, she must have run through all of Tokyo trying to find him."

"Little Masaya-kun with a girlfriend. Incredible." Putting an arm around his wife, Hiromu added: "When he comes back, you and I can cross-examine him to our heart's content."

She sighed. "If he comes back … "

Hiromu thought of cars, of busy intersections, of crash notices in newspapers. He thought of missing person posters on gumball machines and milk cartons. He thought of strangers in dark corners. He stroked Kaede's back, running his hand along the soft strands of her ponytail.

"He has to."

Ten minutes past midnight, the Aoyamas heard a key in the lock. They looked at each other, jumped up from the bed, and came out into the hallway where a slight gray figure was just putting on a pair of house slippers. He looked up, and they saw that his face and uniform were smudged with gravel. There were shadows under his eyes.

"I'm … home," he said, tentatively.

Much to his astonishment, Hiromu and Kaede enveloped him in a group hug. Her tears landed on his cheek.

"Where have you been, Masaya? _Where_ have you _been_?"

"Mother – Father – I'm so glad to see you," said Masaya, his voice hoarse with fatigue as he looked up at them. "You don't know … "

"You owe us an explanation, young man," said Hiromu, straightening the business suit he had forgotten to change out of, and looking ten years younger for the warm color in his face.

Masaya smiled, and it was not the polite smile the had been used to. In fact, there was more than a hint of irony in it.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said.

"We'll believe anything as long as it's the truth," said Kaede, smoothing her son's dishevelled black hair. "Masaya, please. Tell us about the life we've been missing. Tell us everything."

They went to the kitchen and leaned against the white counters, waiting for the teakettle to boil as Kaede dug out fresh leaves from the box at the back of the cupboard. Masaya talked – about his uncanny dreams, his love for Momomiya Ichigo (who was also Mew Ichigo of the Tokyo Mew Mews), and his terrible connection to the alien invaders who had been ravaging the city.

His parents watched him with wide, frightened eyes. "So you are … ?"

"Yes." He drew himself up, looking from one to the other. "I'm the alien entity known as Deep Blue. I came to Earth and transformed myself into a human boy, waiting for a chance to take over the planet. But my human form overwhelmed me, and I lost my memories until I was nothing but the dignified child who impressed you so much at the orphanage."

Kaede gripped her mug of tea so hard her knuckles turned white. Hiromu set his down on the counter with a sharp clack.

"I didn't remember until tonight. My – his followers found me. I wasn't feeling well. They forced me to transform, and Deep Blue took over. He almost … "

Masaya hid his eyes behind one hand. His parents had never seen him like this, struggling for words, unsure of himself.

"If you've been listening to the news, I'm sure you'll know what he almost did. It was the Mew Aqua, you see. A tremendous source of power which Deep Blue invented centuries ago. It got scattered across all of Tokyo when my ship landed, but the greater part ran in my own bloodstream. It made me immortal. It allowed me to transform into the Blue Knight, Ichigo's champion, whenever she needed me. And as Deep Blue, I almost destroyed the city with it.

"Ichigo saved me. She saved us all. Deep Blue did something horrible … he stabbed someone to death in front of her eyes. His former servant, who was trying to protect her. She was crying … for over a month now, I'd been having nightmares about her like that. On her knees, crying over someone's corpse. So I fought back."

Hiromu thought of Kaede after the loss of their first child. He understood; nothing could hurt worse than the tears of a loved one.

"How did you fight back, Masaya?" How was that even possible?

"I forced Deep Blue's spirit out of our body and pinned him down for Ichigo to shoot."

Kaede held her hand over her mouth.

"I know. It sounds impossible. I hardly knew what I was doing. The last thing I remember is releasing the Mew Aqua, so it would have a chance to heal everything I'd destroyed, and Ichigo aiming her Mew weapon at me. I didn't mind dying if it was for her, but … I must have survived, because here I am. She brought me back. I woke up on the floor of Deep Blue's spaceship, holding Ichigo's hand, surrounded by her teammates. We thought she was – gone – but she isn't; she was simply exhausted after everything. The aliens teleported us out of the ship just before it collapsed. There was one last crystal of Mew Aqua left, so we gave it to them. Their planet needs it more than we do."

"Does that mean the invasion is over for good?" Hiromu inquired, for good measure.

"Yes. Those boys were never evil, you know. Just … misled. Deep Blue had promised them that if they followed him to Earth, he would help them claim it as a colony. In reality, all he wanted was to rule it for himself and leave his followers to that miserable snowbound planet they were living on. I remember. He may have started out as a well-meaning leader, but after centuries of immortality he was more than a little insane." Masaya rubbed his forehead, as if the memories gave him a headache.

"And you're sure he's gone?" Hiromu asked.

"Do I look like a pointy-eared sociopath to you?" Masaya snapped, his usually even temper obviously strained.

"No offense, Masaya, but – but after hearing all this, I'm not sure what to believe anymore. You mean you and this – entity – shared a body, but developed separate souls? And you say you forced him out and Momomiya-san shot him? How do you even shoot a spirit?"

"With the energy beam from her Strawberry Bell – oh, Father, please don't look at me like that. Ask Shirogane-san tomorrow if you don't believe me, he can verify it all."

"Strawberry Bell … " Hiromu muttered, shaking his head. "Aliens … Deep Blue … It's too much. I need to sleep on this."

As the middle-aged CEO paced up and down the room, trying to adjust his entire worldview, Keade walked across the room and held her son close.

"I believe you," she said. "And I'm so proud. So very, very proud."

"What for, Mother?" asked Masaya, honestly taken aback.

"Because my son saved the world." Kaede's voice cracked; tears were running down her face as she shook Masaya gently by the shoulders. "But don't you ever do a thing like that again, you hear me?"

"That's right," Hiromu chimed in. "You frightened us half to death with your disappearance."

"I did?" Masaya blushed.

"Of course. Oh, and Masaya … " He cleared his throat. "While we're at it, I have something more to say."

"Yes, Father?"

"If you think … that is, if your mother and I ever gave you the impression that we don't care for you, you can throw that notion right out the window. Because we do."

"You are everythng we've ever hoped for, and much more," said Kaede, wiping her eyes from the Kleenex box. "I don't care if you fail all your classes, or never win a trophy, or leave dirty laundry all over the floor … you'll always be our son. Our Masaya."

The young man tilted his head, noticing a small but momentous change.

"No honorific …" he murmured thoughtfully. "Since when do you call me Masaya? Not even Ichigo does that."

"If you prefer - " began Kaede, feeling awkward, as if she were being introduced all over again to the brightest little boy in the orphanage.

Masaya shook his head and beamed, a wide full-faced grin his parents had never seen before.

"No, Mother, I like it. I like it very much."


End file.
